9. The Elder Scrolls Online
Was it unreasonable for gamers the world over to expect Bethesda's Elder Scrolls-themed MMO to stand toe-to-toe with World of Warcraft? Probably not, but that didn't stop the game riding in on a wave of hype and subsequently falling far short of its hopeful glory. Much like other noted competitors to WoW's crown such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, ESO is a stylistically enticing yet narratively underwhelming effort, largely settling for dull, trite, repetitive quests which are pulled straight from the decades-old MMO handbook. Combat is impressively-crafted, but when you struggle to motivate yourself to keep pressing on, one must consider what the point is of it all. Combine this with the fact that console players have to pay a subscription fee on top of their Xbox Live or PSN dues and it's not exactly an enticing end product. With subscriptions sitting at around 700-800,000 compared to WoW's 7-9 million, it's hardly the worthy challenger Elder Scrolls fans were crying out for.